Silva's attorneys will argue merit of three conditions

Monday

Apr 24, 2017 at 6:46 PM

Roger Phillips Record Staff Writer @rphillipsblog

STOCKTON — Attorneys for Anthony Silva are slated to return to a downtown courtroom Tuesday morning to continue their efforts to defend the former mayor, who is charged with embezzling and laundering public funds from the defunct Boys & Girls Club of Stockton.

Attorney Mark Reichel is slated to argue the merits of three motions he filed last week on behalf of his client:

• Reichel asks Judge Brett Morgan in the first motion to vacate portions of the conditions for Silva’s release on $35,000 bail, specifically provisions that prevent the ex-mayor from working at the successor to the former Boys & Girls Club and that require him to wear an ankle monitor.

According to the motion, the board of the Kids Club has no objection to Silva’s employment at the east Stockton site and receives no public money. Additionally, the ankle monitor prevents Silva from teaching lifeguard classes, the motion says.

The Kids Club board also “will ensure that (Silva) cannot write checks, use credit cards, or in any way utilize financial assets of the Kids Club” if the former mayor is permitted to work there, Reichel’s motion says.

• Reichel is asking Morgan in a second motion to find that a search of a cellphone seized from Silva at customs at San Francisco International Airport on March 5 was done without a warrant and that, as a result, the former mayor’s Constitutional rights protecting him from unreasonable search and seizure were violated.

“The Court must issue an Order requiring the search of the phone to cease immediately, and make such (other) Orders as are just in regard to the fruits of the search already underway or finished,” Reichel wrote.

Prosecutors returned the phone to Silva last week in open court.

• Reichel also is asking the judge to appoint a special master to determine whether information seized from Silva includes privileged attorney/client communication between the former mayor and his lawyers from 2010-17.

A week ago, Morgan ruled against maintaining a seal on the grand jury transcript of the proceedings that led to Silva’s indictment.

By law, if the seal is not maintained, the transcript will be available to the public 10 days after Reichel and co-counsel N. Allen Sawyer obtain their copy of the document.

A woman who works at the court reporter’s office at San Joaquin County Superior Court said Monday that Silva’s attorneys have not yet sought a transcript copy. Doing so would start the ticking of the 10-day clock, she said.

Sawyer said last week he and Reichel are likely to want to review the transcript at some point, but he would not say when.

Silva and his legal team are scheduled back in court May 2 in Jackson. In that case, Silva faces misdemeanor charges involving alleged illegal activities in 2015 at his annual summer camp for disadvantaged youth in Amador County.

— Contact reporter Roger Phillips at (209) 546-8299 or rphillips@recordnet.com. Follow him at recordnet.com/phillipsblog and on Twitter @rphillipsblog.